The Glory of 1980s Staten Island

The Glory of 1980s Staten Island

Like many young artists living in New York City in the 1970s and ’80s, Christine Osinski fixed up a great loft in lower Manhattan only to have a new owner kick her out so he could flip it.

Unsure of where to move, Osinski and her husband began searching for a new place to live, preferably in a neighborhood where they could afford to buy a place and avoid going through the same ordeal.

“Finally somebody said you should look in Staten Island,” Osinski recalled. It turned out to be a good suggestion. Osinski and her husband would end up spending the next 16 years living in New York City’s least populated borough.

Advertisement

Inspired by her new environment, Osinski documented life around her in black-and-white, shooting hundreds of images of children, adults, architecture, and other events throughout 1983 and ’84. She used both a 4x5 and twin lens reflex camera, switching between the two according to the film she was able to afford.

“I hope I don’t romanticize things, but I really liked all of the crazy people and places,” Osinski recalled about her neighborhood. “I was trying to figure out why I was so attracted, and I think it was because they were both exotic and familiar to me; I met these people in my childhood in Chicago.”

Young Man Pulling Go-Kart

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Left: Boy on Bicycle. Right: Two Girls with Big Wheels.

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Two Shirtless Boys

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

But she never had a chance to show the pictures at the time, due to a number of circumstances.

She had been shooting the images with an uncoated Linhoff lens that “did these crazy things to the highlights, and I could never print the pictures. Even if I overexposed them four stops they were still underexposed; you can look through every negative.” Frustrated, Osinski threw away the lens because she couldn’t stand not being able to print the images to her standards.

Advertisement

Life happened as well. She worked full-time (she has been a professor at Cooper Union for almost 30 years) and had two kids. She eventually moved her family to Connecticut and continued to pursue new projects but “always felt stuck because … I felt I never gave this [Staten Island] work its due.”

“That whole body of work has been on such a strange trip,” Osinski said, noting that new digital scanning techniques finally allowed her to print the images the way she felt they should be printed.

Friends at the Beach

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Girl Looking Sideways

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Two Girls Hugging Near Car

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

“Students don’t realize (how hard it is to make a good print),” she said. “If you want to make a photograph as an object, as a paper object, what it takes to produce that; it’s different than a cellphone picture projected on a website. They can’t believe how much work it takes to make a print … it’s like building a house. It’s enormous, really producing something of quality.”

Thirty years later, her images are finally getting their day in the sun. “I feel the work is a gift and I’m sort of a steward of it. I think it deserves to be out there.”

Advertisement

Christine Osinski’s photos will be part of a group show at Sasha Wolf Gallery titled “The Drinking Show” opening July 11.

Children on Wrecked Car

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Two Men Repairing West Brighton House

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Left: Clown with Horse. Right: Elephant with Mother and Daughter.

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

Young Woman Cutting Grass

Christine Osinski courtesy of Sasha Wolf Gallery

David Rosenberg is the editor of Slate’s Behold blog. He has worked as a photo editor for 15 years and is a tennis junkie. Follow him on Twitter.